No matter what you like – science and technology, art,
business, politics, community service – Afterschool.gov has
something to offer you. Polls of kids and teens indicate
these sites were the best in the government. They’ve listed
the sites by subject matter, so search until you find
something that interests you. The kids’ sites were designed
with elementary school students in mind, but middle and high
school students will probably enjoy the teens’ sites. Don’t
limit yourself – you’d be surprised at how much you discover
no matter where you look on these pages. For more information
please go to:
www.afterschool.gov
~~~~>
Search Institute
Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization
whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and
resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities.
To accomplish this mission, the institute generates and
communicates new knowledge, and brings together community,
state, and national leaders.
At the heart of the Institute's work is the framework of
40 developmental assets, which are positive experiences
and personal qualities that young people need to grow up
healthy, caring, and responsible.
Search Institute
The Banks Building
615 First Avenue NE, Suite 125
Minneapolis, MN 55413
612-376-8955 or 800-888-7828
http://www.search-institute.org/
~~~~> Substance Abuse
Prevention Basics for Families
Through February 2004, the National Clearinghouse for
Alcohol and Drug Information is offering "Prevention Basics
for Families" free of charge.
The kit provides practical ideas about rearing healthy,
drug-free children and helps parents inform their children
about the effects and dangers of specific drugs.
For further information about "Prevention Basics for
Families" or to order online, visit:
http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/promos/theme/default.aspx
You may also order the kit by calling 800-729-6686.
~~~~> No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) Update
The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education's first-ever
webcast, where ED staff and two experienced educators from
prominent school districts discuss LEA and school improvement,
Chris Coxon, Deputy Superintendent for Teaching and Learning
for Boston Public Schools, and Walt Gibson, a Community
Superintendent for Montgomery County (Maryland) Schools --
discuss school and district improvement, from theory to
practice. Among the intriguing video segments are "Monitoring
for Continuous Progress," "Requirements for School Improvement
and School Improvement Plans," and "Supporting the
Implementation of School Improvement Plans." For more
information, please go to:
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/improve/sigwebcast.html.
~~~~> RIF's
Community Reading Challenge
Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) challenges you to support
children's reading success! This January and February, RIF
conducts the Community Reading Challenge, a national
competition sponsored by the MetLife Foundation that gets
children to read for fun and provides a great volunteer
opportunity for community members. More than 1,100 RIF sites
across the country select two weeks to participate, and then
organize numerous literacy activities that motivate children
to read. Every activity-from students' personal reading to
volunteer guest readers - helps the site earn valuable points
to win a state or national award and additional funds to buy
books.
To find a participating RIF program near you and become a
guest reader or volunteer, visit the RIF website at
http://www.rif.org/how/volunteer/program_list.mspx.
Articles of Interest
~~~~>
On the Upper West Side, Taking
Spanish Baby Steps
By Seth Kugel
The New York Times
February 1, 2004
A class of 2-year-olds from La Escuelita preschool on the
Upper West Side bundled up and marched outside last Thursday
morning, ready to paint some snow. Their three teachers
insisted that the children ask for their colors in Spanish.
Abe asked for rojo, Allison azul, Hudson verde and Izabella
anaranjado, or orange. Then they set to work spraying the
fluffy snowbanks (and a stray Mitsubishi Galant), using
spritzers bursting with food coloring and water. "Estoy
poniendo morado!" Orion said. I'm putting purple!
With all the wildly competitive private preschools in a
city with 2.2 million Latinos, a dual-language program
specifically designed to teach children Spanish at the age
they could best absorb it makes sense. But two years ago,
Jennifer Friedman and Jennifer Woodruff, then new mothers,
tried to find one and could not.
So the two women, both educators, opened La Escuelita (the
Little School) in the renovated basement of a Greek Orthodox
church at West 91st Street and West End Avenue. The first full
session began last fall with 39 students and a waiting list.
The school already has more applications than openings for
next fall, and it plans to expand.
Last week, at an information session, a room was filled
with bilingual parents, including Latino professionals,
parents with Latina nannies and parents who just thought it
was important for their children to speak Spanish, learning
about the school and, in some cases, jockeying shamelessly to
impress the directors. (They pick students based on how
dedicated the family is to bilingualism.)
Raising bilingual children in New York is harder than it
would seem. "Knowing another language is seen as a priority
in other countries, but here it's looked down upon,
particularly in Spanish," said Ms. Friedman, a bilingual
speech pathologist who has spoken Spanish to her son since he
was born. “Children pick up on their parents' linguistic
indifference,” Ms. Woodruff added, “and tilt toward English.”
Martha Escobar and Sandor Lehoczky had spoken Spanish to
their son, Orion, as much as possible since his birth, with
mixed results. "Before he started school, if you spoke to him
in Spanish, he would understand but would answer in English,"
Ms. Escobar said. Her theory: he heard other children speaking
English, so he did, too. “After one month at La Escuelita,”
she said, “he started responding in Spanish.”
That is undoubtedly because using Spanish at La Escuelita
brings smiles and praise from the teachers. When Loreto Perez,
who is from Spain, first started teaching her class of 3- and
4-year-olds, she was frustrated: many of the children did not
understand anything she said. But that changed quickly.
And the first thing many learned, before hola and adios?
"Es mío!" she said. It's mine.
~~~~> A Move to
Invest More in Effective Teaching
By Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
After 30 years in the classroom, Anita Rowe is at the top
of her game. Colleagues of the third-grade teacher in
Chattanooga, Tenn., marvel at her success in boosting student
achievement, with a little fun thrown in.
Usually such success would get a teacher little more than a
few kind words from the principal and a grateful smile from
parents. But Chattanooga is trying something different:
Because her students' test scores improved so much and she was
willing to transfer to a struggling inner-city school, Rowe is
making an extra $5,000 a year.
Not that the money had anything to do with her decision to
teach at Clifton Hills Elementary School. She said, "I just
felt I could be effective with those students, and I wanted to
take that challenge on."
Nor do champions of the Chattanooga effort believe that
bonuses paid to 26 high-performing teachers are solely
responsible for increases of 10 percentile points in
third-graders reading at or above grade level. They credit
extra training for teachers, changes in school leadership and
better use of data in the city's nine lowest-scoring schools.
The effort also has been helped by private donations,
including a $5 million grant from the local Benwood
Foundation, said Dan Challener, president of the Public
Education Foundation, which promotes community involvement in
schools.
But many education experts and policymakers who think all
schools should pay more to their most effective teachers are
watching the Chattanooga experiment and a few other
initiatives like it.
Even some teachers’ unions, which often argue that merit
pay is unsound and unfair, appear receptive. Gerry Dowler, an
official of the Tennessee Education Association, which
represents Chattanooga teachers, said the changes were a
result of union bargaining. "When you look at what is best for
students, sometimes it does take some radical changes and
requires us to experiment and try some options," she said.
Kevin Carey, senior policy analyst for the nonprofit
research organization Education Trust, said: "Chattanooga very
much recognizes the importance of effective teachers to
student learning and shows the potential for creating great
improvement among low-performing, low-income students if we
can get those teachers into their classrooms."
The Teaching Commission -- a private panel that was founded
by former IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr. and that includes
former U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley, American
Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman and former
North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt Jr. -- made the
Chattanooga results a centerpiece of its recent call for a
radical overhaul of teacher recruiting and compensation
practices.
"Until we make it more attractive for teachers to stay in
our most challenging schools by offering a significant salary
premium -- enough to make their earnings exceed those of
teachers with less demanding assignments in affluent
neighborhoods -- the teacher shortage in hard-to-staff schools
will not go away," the commission said. The commission said
that with an extra $30 billion, about 6 percent of total
education spending, the nation could raise all teacher
salaries at least 10 percent and those of the top half of
teachers by 30 percent.
In an interview, Feldman said she would like to raise all
teacher salaries at least 30 percent and put the merit raises
on top of that. "It's important to start rethinking the way
teachers are compensated," she said. "That means creating a
more professional salary structure, starting at a much higher
level and not taking 20 years to get to the top salary."
The commission lauded the new career paths for exceptional
teachers being created in 71 public schools in eight states
under the Milken Family Foundation's Teacher Advancement
Program. A successful teacher under that system can earn more
money and develop new skills by becoming a "mentor teacher" or
eventually a "master teacher," training instructors in the
best new techniques.
Nikki N. Serafin, a fourth-grade teacher at Madison Rose
Lane Elementary School in Phoenix, said she earns 30 percent
more than her base salary of $38,000 in the Teacher
Advancement Program. This is because of her work as a master
teacher and because of high ratings of her teaching skills and
increases in student test scores.
Many teachers say they are uncomfortable being paid more
than colleagues because a good school is usually a team
effort. The Milken system recognizes that. "The plan is set
up so that teachers are rewarded not only when their own class
shows significant growth but also when their own grade level
succeeds and the grades before and after them achieve,"
Serafin said.
In the program's first year at Serafin's school,
fourth-grade math scores jumped 14 percentile points and
third-grade reading scores were up 11 percentile points, she
said. The Chattanooga experiment would not have been possible
without Tennessee's trove of data collected by researcher
William Sanders on how much value each teacher in the state
has added to the education of third- through eighth-graders.
The information, including test results, portfolios of student
work and of lesson plans for younger pupils, was useful in
deciding which teachers, such as Rowe, had the skills that the
struggling schools needed.
At the same time, the results, along with interviews and
observations, guided principals in deciding which teachers
would be removed from the schools that needed help, Challener
said.
When the changes were made two years ago, he said, about 50
teachers decided to transfer out of the nine affected schools
and another 50 teachers were transferred involuntarily under
special powers the superintendent had been given.
By changing the principals of six of the nine schools,
improving teacher training and adding financial incentives to
attract good teachers and keep the good teachers already at
the schools, student learning became the primary focus,
Challener said. "On any measure you want to use," he said,
"student achievement was up significantly in every subject."
Better working conditions for teachers also reduced staff
turnover. Challener said that in the past, the nine schools
would have at least 60 teaching vacancies a year and would
still need to hire people when school started. "This year
there were only 25 vacancies, and we filled every one," he
said.
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February 2004 Edition
